If you haven't heard, Nintendo plans to shut down the servers for several of the Wii channels that have been around for years this week. On June 28th, the Forecast Channel, the News Channel, the Everybody Votes Channel, the Nintendo Channel, and the Check Mii Out Channel will all cease to function. You'll also no longer be able to have Miis migrate amongst you and your friends' systems, which will sadly leave my Mii parade just shy of a thousand participants.
Although their usefulness and entertainment value was short lived and somewhat debatable, I really loved the inventiveness of the entire channel system and how well crafted most of them were. In fact, I wrote a lengthy piece about it some time ago that dug in to everything that was offered.
I almost never look at those channels any more, so I'm not really going to miss them, but it does make me sad that I won't be able to boot them back up in the future to remember what they were like. This is a sensation we'd better get used to, though, now that everything will soon be digital and most things will have some sort of reliance on "the cloud."
So, run to that Wii and give your opinion on what type of pizza topping is best and try to download as many Miss Piggy Miis before you lose the opportunity forever!
I'm actually racing against time to try and get the friend voucher stuff from the Metroid Prime games cause I never had it and heard that the Wii Connect 24 thing will also go away. And boy do those channels take me back, I remember the Wii was the only console I had so I used them often. I mean it's free stuff so might as well use them. While I wont really miss them, it's sad to see those channels go.
I have true trilogy lying about somewhere.
Do you have it with you now? If you are you willing to help me? I only need 5 vouchers.
Those were fun diversions. The Forecast Channel, Everybody Votes and the News were actually pretty good. Playing with the spinning globe or hoping you were in the majority was entertaining. Only weakness with the Forecast Channel is that it did long-range forecasts for your country only.
Good point about digital downloads. Once the servers go down, it'll be gone forever. Truly lamentable.
Actual downloads are one thing, but if they require any sort of server contact, it's toast. I am reminded of this every time I look at my nigh worthless Chumby.
That's a real shame. I only recently bought a Wii for myself. My son has had one for years now. I went down to Gamestop the next day to buy a Wii Points card. The clerk told me they are no longer being made or sold. Found out he is full of it because Wal Mart had a few hundred of them! They should not desert consumers like that. And I don't think they are. I guess it just costs too much to keep those servers up.
I have to say I never really used those channels myself. They were a novelty but something I never really took seriously. So long as we still have the channel that lets us buy VC games, I'm content. I wonder if we can delete those channels now?